The manner in which the sacrifice is offered is different: on the cross Christ shed His blood and was put to death, while in the Mass there is no new immolation of the Victim, but only a new offering. On the cross Christ gained merit and satisfied for us, while in the Mass He applies to us the merits and satisfaction of His death on the cross.

1. Christ was immolated on Calvary, once and for all; He is now in glory, and can die no more. How then can we say that He is continually sacrificed on our altars? Because, as we just explained, Christ the Victim of Calvary is offered anew.

It is clear that the Mass is a unique kind of sacrifice–a sacramental sacrifice, essentially related to the Cross and depending on it. It is on the Cross that Christ became the Victim of salvation; now He is glorified, but as the Victim who has offered Himself, has been accepted, and can now apply the merits of His sacrifice.

2. The sacrifice of the Cross is the fountain of all grace and salvation. The Mass applies to us the power and merit of that sacrifice.

The sacrifice of the Cross is all-sufficient. The Mass adds nothing to it, but unfolds its riches, it brings Calvary within the reach of all men in every clime and age, in order that all men may unite themselves with it and draw upon its infinite treasures.

3. The sacrifice on Calvary was offered up by Christ for us; while at Mass He offers Himself through us.

By changing our gifts into His body and blood, Christ puts, as it were, His precious sacrifice into our hands that we may present it to the heavenly Father. In this act He “appears before the face of God on our behalf” (Hebrew 9:24).

By offering, we appropriate the treasures of Christ’s sacrifice. But if our offering is sincere, it expresses our own interior self-oblation to God. Thus the Mass becomes the oblation of the whole Mystical Body, the Church offering herself through and with Christ, her Head and Saviour. Thereby she draws upon the treasures of the Cross, in proportion to the fervour of her offering.

Thus the Mass is the sacrifice of the Cross communicated to the Church.

The Mass is the same sacrifice as the sacrifice of the cross, because in the Mass the Victim is the same, and the principal Priest is the same, Jesus Christ.

1. The Mass is the very same sacrifice which was offered up at the Last Supper and on Calvary; it is the living presence of the sacrifice of the Cross.

On Calvary, Christ offered Himself up by accepting a cruel death out of obedience to the heavenly Father and for our redemption. At the Last Supper, He offered Himself for the impending immolation: “This is my body. . .  This is my blood of the new covenant, which is being (or will be) shed for many.” He added: “Do this in remembrance of me.” At Mass, the Victim immolated on Calvary is offered anew, by the priest repeating the same words with which Christ offered Himself at the Last Supper.

The Mass does not, strictly speaking, renew the sacrifice of the Cross. Christ has been immolated once for all. The Church, by the symbolic separation of body and blood (in the double consecration), represents the historic sacrifice and offers it anew to the heavenly Father. As St. Paul writes: “For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

2. The Mass is no mere remembrance or memorial of Calvary. Christ, the Victim of Calvary, is really present, and with Him the permanent power or efficacy of His great sacrifice. Through the new offering that power is now communicated and applied to the Church, to all of us. In this sense, the sacrifice of the Cross is present (sacramentally) in the Mass.

The priest offering the mass is Christ’s minister and representative. He utters the words of consecration in the name and person of Christ, saying: “This is My Body. This is My Blood;” not, “This is Christ’s Body, etc.”

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The Mass is the chief and central act of Catholic worship, the greatest act of worship that can be offered to God, an infinite ocean of graces for the living and the dead.

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The illustration shows the solemn blessing of the grapevines from which the grapes are taken to prepare wine for the consecration during the Sacrifice of the Mass.